“Success is the best revenge. Because they see you climbing up the ranks and they’re like ‘Oh, I messed up’” You clenched your jaw as you were listening to that familiar voice on the radio when your workmate suddenly turned it off.

Things between the both of you changed since you opened up to her. She even helped you hide when you saw Brian approaching the coffee shop few months ago. Just how she used to talk about them always, she’s now helping you ease the pain by making you go back to your senses when you’re starting to be drifted away by the stream of feels you’re having. And one of those is turning off the radio when Jae made you think their success right now is kind of a revenge for you.

Other times she’d grab your phone away from you when she catches you reading some theories and opinions from fans. A lot is blaming you, hate you for hurting Brian. Others thank you because whatever happened, it’s thanks to you that Brian gets to write these beautiful songs; even if they’re mostly painful. But the thing is, they don’t actually know that the “ex-girlfriend” that they always talk about exists. Some even talk about how you might be regretting right now for leaving him.

You all don’t know what happened. You all don’t know the reason why we broke up. I never wanted to break up! You felt a pat on your shoulder which made you look up.

“You’re thinking about what the fans are talking about again, aren’t you?”

With another comeback, not to mention that this one’s not like any other, more theories and opinions raised up. The year has just started and they came back with a project which is to release two songs every month for the whole year.

And for the first title track that they released few days ago, another breakup topic raised. Talking about how confused the band was. Saying congratulations to an ex for leaving, saying they’ll finally let go and now they found themselves still waiting in the same place, waiting for the girl to hold their hand but then still wanting to let go despite all of the memories are frozen in them. But of course, most of these questions and topics refer to Brian.

Regret, huh? Of course you regret not being by his side. But knowing they’re having a project like this made you think that what you did is right. If they were busy before, they’re much busier right now. You can’t help but think and be worried if he can still manage to balance his time and if he can still study for exams or does he stay up night before them.

But that belief of being able to accept your situation right now dimmed seeing Ayeon sitting next to Brian. He smiles a lot. And his eyes seem to be soft. Unlike when he was singing Congratulations and Letting Go. His smile doesn’t wear off his face when talking to her. But he’s just like that to everyone.

You wanted to smack yourself because you kept on quarrelling with your mind—like you want to justify every action he does; like you want to convince yourself there’s nothing to be jealous of. And you wanted to at least murmur your thanks because he talks more to the radio host than to the girl beside him. But suddenly, you wanted to whack your laptop’s monitor when they whispered to each other. So close!

You bit your lip when they’re about to sing together. She really has a nice voice and she’s really pretty. You were somehow fine at first but when he faced her while she was singing, you wanted to make a portal on the screen and stand between them. He even bit his lower lip! What the hell?!

The song was about the ‘shouldn’t have’s’ of a guy to a girl; the misleading actions and keeping the hopes up. Typical Brian. Then it made you wonder if Ayeon was thinking about Brian while singing this. Are they on this page?

Stop closing your eyes while she’s singing for Pete’s sake!

(a/n: listen to You Were Beautiful)

You found yourself waiting for midnight after a few weeks. You refreshed the YouTube when the clock 12 AM. Your fingers were trembling when you clicked play. Your heart danced together to the rhythm of the guitar.

What I’m saying right now

Doesn’t mean that we’re starting up again

I’m just bringing back

The remaining memories of you

Jae’s eyes were the same; sentimental as always. Your chest squinched up as you furrowed your brows. Is this the same girl? Your hands were cold as ice and your heart was hot by being compressed so tight. This is about memories again?

You exhaled sharply when the next thing you saw was his face and next thing you heard was his voice; with a different kind of feels.

Without missing a single day

You told me that you love me

Before I went to bed

As soon as I opened my eyes

You told me

I remember so I’m just saying

Your lips quivered; tears trailed down your face. Your skin became rough and small bumps appeared. His melancholic voice sent shivers down your spine. His face was peaceful; different from their past music videos.

Is this finally it?

You were pretty

Your eyes that looked at me

Your voice that called out to me

Everything, everything

To me, everything about you

Is this really the same girl? Or they just look so much alike? You were starting to feel more nervous. What if it’s connected with Congratulations? Wonpil and Sungjin’s expression didn’t help either; even Dowoon’s. They all look sentimental.

You were pretty

The feeling of not wanting anything more

Moments that only you gave

Everything, everything

Everything has passed

But you were so pretty

What the hell, Bob?! Stop singing! You covered your mouth and nose with both hands, trying to preclude any noise to come out from your mouth. You clutched your chest as your breathing became heavier.

It’s really her, isn’t it?! You tried to inhale some air for you couldn’t seem to breathe anymore. When the scene changed into the girl being inside a Karaoke room, you became sure that it’s really her. This one even came from the Congratulations MV. Seriously, what’s happening?

When Brian sang a part again, the guy from Congratulations finally made his appearance on the new music video. Still, the clip was from the former MV. You couldn’t restrain your cries anymore that you even let out a scream of pain. You didn’t mind if people will hear you crying at midnight.

There’s the guitar, the ramen and the Chopper hat again. He looked really peaceful. Does this mean he’s already over you? Is this his way of telling me he has finally moved on? Is this his way of telling me that he doesn’t feel pain from our memories anymore but only see them as a beautiful reminiscence? Is this really the end now?

I still think of you sometimes

Should I call you up?

There were a lot of times I thought that but

Baby I know it’s already over

You wanted to cuss at Jae. How dare he answer the question in your head? D*mn! It’s really over now? Is it? Can I please take them all back? It’s almost 2 years now, is it already too late? You kept on wondering and asking yourself; if you pull those swords that you’ve stabbed, will you be able to heal and close all the wounds that you’ve caused?

You cried for an hour before checking their fans’ reaction. All of them were emotional, too. A lot of people also cried like you but no one could ever feel the same pain as what you’re feeling right now.

But there were people talking about them being confused as they always are (talking about the message of their songs). They were talking about the side track, so you then proceeded to search for it; as if you’re not yet hurting enough. Just how much do you love to torture yourself?

(a/n: Listen to I Would/It Would Have Been)

It took you by surprise when he was the one who sang the first part. And it was even about saying sorry. The title track was like telling you you’re just a memory but this one is like telling you if he could still hold you even for just a day.

Does he want to see and hold me for one last time before he could finally let me go? Is this what he’s asking for?

You bit your lip when a phrase made your remember the day that he was on his knees, with tears strolling down his face, as you walk away from him not even looking back.

When you were leaving me

I shouldn’t have let you go

All these ‘would have’s’ made you run to a place of your memories in the middle of the night. What are you even doing? Are you already out of your mind? Who in their right mind would run at midnight crying just to go that memorable place? It’s not like you’re going to see him there waiting for you anyway. It’s midnight.

But you couldn’t just care less anymore. You want everything back. You want him back.

You just stood at the seaside promenade, facing at the bay. You can still remember every detail that happened that night. When he held your wrist and told you to stay, his soft gazes, the feeling of having his arms wrapped around you, his mushy lips on your head; all of it.

As you were reminiscing every remnant of memories with him, you suddenly stiffened. Your heartbeat increased in speed. You slowly exhaled a soft breath. You didn’t bother turning back but you knew for sure, he’s there.

Moments after, warm arms enveloped you from behind. A head snuggled on your shoulder as you slowly closed your eyes to let yourself be engulfed in his warmth. No one bothered to speak.

As your heart finally had its speed in constant when it found a familiar comfort from the man enclosing you in his arms, you gathered some strength to utter things you wanted to tell him. But before you could even speak, you heard him whisper “Finally”.

Turned out that every time they release a song, he’d always go to this place hoping to see you and hold you tight. But of course you didn’t know. Finally what? Finally you held me once more and then you’ll finally be able to let me go? You bit your lip as you remember the lyrics of their side track for this month. You swallowed and let out a soft breath.

“I’m—I’m sorry, Bri.” A breath escaped from your mouth once again “I—I really regret everything. I should’ve—“ You squeezed your eyes tight as you try to tell yourself to get to the point. “Can you please not let me go? Can you please love me again?”

Your heartbeat started to rise again as you anticipate his answer. It was a minute of silence; a minute of torture.

“I only loved you once, it’s never gonna be twice”

You felt your world crumble. From that very instant, you wanted to vanish or turn into stone to not feel this extreme pain you’re feeling right now.

Then what is this? Why is he hugging you? Is this just another misleading action? Is this just to console you because he’s going to let you go after this? Is this just what the song has said—that he got to let go but he wants to go back even just for one more time?

You cluster some energy together to raise your hand and pull his arms away but he held you tighter. You wanted to slap him so bad. How could he? He’s not even going to love you again but he’s doing this.

You shut your eyes and a tear escaped. You felt his breath as he felt your tear.

“Because the moment I loved you, I never stopped and I don’t think I’ll be able to” You flipped your eyes open when he started speaking again “It only grows stronger each day even when you were away. So I cannot love you again because I have always been loving you. And all I can do is just to love you more”

Your shoulders were shaking as you began to sob. You felt him squeezed you tighter to his embrace. What did you ever do to deserve him? What did you ever do to be loved by him? What did you ever do for him to still love you even if you left and hurt him? You cannot be thankful enough to have him. Words cannot express how much you are grateful right now.

“I’m sorry” You hiccupped “I’m sorry—“ He shushed you and made you face him. You shook your head as his gaze laid on you “I just wanted to—“

“I understand”

With mouth agape, you stared into his eyes. ‘I understand.’ You finally heard it.

“But a break isn’t what I need; being away from you is not the answer” He started wiping your tears “What I need is your lap for my head to rest on when I’m tired; your voice to fill my ears to comfort my soul that no music nor anyone else’s voice could do; your shoulder for me to lean on when I’m feeling weak; your hands to push me forward when I feel like giving up; your eyes that convey your thoughts that you believe in me; your lips to utter words that I need to hear; your arms to wrap around me when I feel alone; your feet to take every step with me in this journey; and your heart that loves me like no one else does.”

He pulled you to his embrace and you let your heart cry out. You wanted to mentally grab your hair and slap your face for being so stupid to leave him. It’s been tough for him and during those times, you weren’t beside him. It was you who he needed the most but it was you whom he couldn’t hold close.

You were murmuring your apologies as you were snuggling on his chest when he pulled away and tilted your head for you to meet his eyes.

“If you’re truly sorry, I need you to do this one thing. I don’t just want you to promise this but to actually do this”

You swallowed the lump in your throat as you hastily nodded your head. Another batch of tears fell down your face as you tried to let your gaze stay on his eyes.

“Walk with me until the end”, he said softly; eyes were hopeful.

Finally, you smiled genuinely. You slowly nodded and your smile grew wider when you saw him heaved a sigh of relief. His eyes glittered as he beamed.

To guarantee it, he sealed that commitment with locking his lips with yours. You smiled as you felt like melting. This is where you belong; this is home and you’re finally back.

-

IT WOULD BE NICE IF YOU COULD CONTINUE TO READ THE NOTE :) MUCH LOVE

So it’s finally over :)

Thank you for being with me in this journey. Lol.

I never actually planned on writing imagines—I used to write stories but since I never really believed in myself and I’m just good with starting and bad with finishing things, I stopped. And I never ever really wrote a reader x artist kind of story.

As I’ve said before, this was kind of outburst of emotion because a mutual and I were like ‘attacking’ each other with tweets of what would Brian say if he caught you looking.

Days before that happened, I tried to read some fanfics but I never really got the “feeling” that the character was Brian, Jae or whoever it was because it felt like it’s a different person. Then I saw this mutual tweet something like that, too. So it made me really want to write the scenes that’s been playing in my head since our youngest sister also told me the day before that to write stories again (because she was my first reader before)

So the reason why there are chapters 1 & 2 and 5 special chapters is because I only planned on writing only one and that’s the Once is a coincidence, twice is not ; because it somehow came from experience, too.

But then since I wrote the story as I tried to make Brian’s character stay, some friends (and myself) feel attacked when Day6, especially Brian, drops something. Example, the “mwa” and the picnic scene. It made us think about the FF because as they’ve said, they could feel that it was really Brian.

That made me write another chapter. And I thought of stopping there. But… every time I take the bus and listen to Day6 songs, scenes would flash in my mind—the chapters were sweet, it needs a conflict. So the first chapter was still sweet, I made them official couple but the next chapter I made them breakup. Lol. So I said Im gonna stop at Special Chapter 3 because I already have the ending in mind--but I wanna use the Letting Go and I Would/It Would Have Been songs; and as you can see I made them Im Serious song and unreleased one just like the eyeless; making them sing it on the chapter 2 (was it chapter 2?) but then after almost 2 years, "every day6 project" happened.

As you can see there are a lot of plot holes, too. And this plot is so overused, simple girl and a popular guy; but I just wanted to make it feel like they are really them that I even used Jae’s exact lines (lobster, success and dumb mistakes lines--they were from Monday Music Access with Bernard), also I even used some scenes that happened irl and Bran’s hashtag from IG #walkwithmeuntiltheend. Sorry also for making the special chapters 2-5 emotional; did I overdo it? It’s just that I need to write a story that happened for almost 2 years in 7 chapters:
Breakup (April) – 5 months (September) – Congratulations – few weeks, + 5 months = March – Letting Go – the rest of the month were skipped – “the year has just started” (9 months passed) – I wait and Goodbye winter description – Waiting for midnight: February – end (20 months?)

So I can’t help but push through it because the scenes won’t just leave my mind; they just flowed in my head when I listened to Day6 (So when the certain song played, the scenes I used in this story were the exact scenes in my head while I’m riding a bus, listening to Day6)—and because of this, I can never listen to Habits the same way again. I used to really jam with it, moving a lot and dance to it, but now it has an emotional impact to me. If I did the same to you… Sorry. Haha.

So there you go. I never actually thought that many would like this and it made me so overwhelmed. Thank you so much for reading, enjoying, and crying with me (If u ever did)

-

HMU--

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Twitter: kohiiby

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